Reviving Local Stories: Cultural Heritage and Folktales in Nordic and Baltic Countries
(Nordplus junior preparatory visit Finland – Latvia)
Table of contents Partner schools………….3-7 Aim of the project……………..8-9 The Preparatory Visit…..10- 26 Preparatory visit – afterword…….27 Summary….. 28-29
Introduction - Partner schools:
Harjavallan Lukio & Ventspils State Gymnasium No. 1.
Coordinating school: Harjavallan lukio has a long tradition of cooperation in various international projects. In addition, internationalisation is a much-appreciated part of the school strategy. Students study at least two different languages besides Finnish, and several students also study other foreign languages. Therefore, they are motivated to participate in international projects and cooperation with different cultures. The school has participated in several international mobility projects in the past. Exchange students from different countries study in Harjavallan lukio almost every year, e.g. from Germany, Turkey, the United States, Japan, Spain and Australia. To develop international networks and project cooperation, Harjavallan lukio established an internationalisation group made up of teachers working in different fields. The team has vast area expertise and represents a wide range of different educational backgrounds. Our headmaster of Harjavallan lukio, Sari Lukka, is also actively involved in the project. Our school has recently completed a Norplus mobility with Lithuania. The project was a success and made us even more enthusiastic about being the coordinators of this up-coming project.
Partner school: Our partners school would be Ventspils State Gymnasium No. 1. It is a secondary school for students aged 14 to 19. The school has 433 students and 47 teachers. The mission of Ventspils State Gymnasium No.1 is to provide highquality education that meets modern requirements in an environment where students are (self-)motivated to achieve higher learning outcomes and prepared for lifelong learning. The core values of the school are: Responsibility, Independence, Cooperation, Respect, and Excellence. The students mainly come from the city and municipality of Ventspils, but there are also some students from other cities Latvian cities. The school also participates in the AFS exchange program, and this year the school has a student from China. The school is located in Ventspils, a city with approximately 40,000 inhabitants.
It is located in the north-west of Latvia, on the Baltic Sea coast. All students are offered three educational programs: IT/programming and engineering, economics/business and cultural studies, as well as natural sciences and health. Students participate in various extracurricular activities, such as the choir, brass band, drama club, etc. The school regularly organises literary, folklore and cultural initiatives related to the study of local history, which help Students understand both local and international values. Therefore, the goals of the project resonate with the pedagogical approach and values of both schools.
This project aims to share, document, and, in addition, revive traditional stories and folktales from different regions by involving secondary school students, educators, and cultural institutions such as museums and libraries. The project aims to increase cultural awareness among young people. In addition, this project will promote and strengthen the identities of NordicBaltic people. As a part of our mobility activities, we organise workshops where we begin to share and study the folktales of the participating countries (Finland and Latvia). During the preparatory visit, we mapped the stories of our countries and planned more detailed descriptions of the workshop tasks. The groups choose stories that are treated through drama, visual arts and music. Additionally, the stories are compared to one another to examine their similarities and differences. In this project, we also want to find out what kind of values and worldview the stories convey.
The output of the process is an electronic digital book, which compiles visual arts, music, the ideas, thoughts and outputs generated in the workshops. Through these activities, the participating students learn to understand their own and other countries' cultural heritage and strengthen their own language skills and creative expression. One of the aims of the project is to help students create a bridge between the past and the present through storytelling. The project would provide an opportunity for students and teachers to learn more about and preserve local cultural heritage. In today’s globalised world, there is a risk that traditional fairytales, legends and folklore elements could disappear from the everyday lives of the younger generation, which is why the implementation of such a project is particularly important.
The preparatory visit
Our Latvian guests arrived in Harjavalta on the first of December 2025. During the first day, they checked into the local hotel and explored the centre of Harjavalta. The actual program started the following day in Harjavallan lukio. After breakfast, the guests met some teachers and the headmaster, who said the welcome words and told some facts about Harjavalta. Then those who are involved in the future project took part in a project workshop to start to define the details of how the project will be implemented and delivered, and what kind of results will be achieved. During the visit, we also visited the Harjavalta library, where the library director, Jenni Kallionsivu, introduced us to the library and helped us to observe and narrow down the topic of the upcoming project. We received good tips on what folktales to research and how to utilise the library during the project.
In the afternoon, the guests visited Pori with some of their Finnish colleagues. The most important place to visit was Satakunnan museo. The third and fourth days started with breakfast in Harjavallan lukio. After eating, we continued having the workshop until lunch. We visited The Naurava lohikäärme (Information Centre of Prehistory) in Eura. In the afternoon, the project participants had a meeting at the school. We discussed different themes concerning the future project during both days. In the morning of the fourth day, we summarised and stated the main points of our future project. All in all, the preparatory meeting was successful, and we got many new ideas to promote the project.
The visit to the Satakunta Museum supported the goals of our project related to Finnish folklore and folktales. The exhibition at the Satakunta Museum illustrated, for example, how different beliefs have influenced people's thoughts in different eras. The exhibition revealed, among other things, why the bear has such a great symbolic value in the Satakunta region. This also had similarities with the folktales of our guests, as in Latvia, the bear is a large part of their national epic. This observation generated a lot of discussion during the visit. After the visit, we also got to know the public artworks in Pori and the so-called Kivi-Pori historical building milieu. The purpose of the tour was to show that the folktales of the Satakunta region have inspired various artists to tell and maintain these stories. Among the artworks, we looked in particular at the statues, and the symbolism of the bear and the history of Pori were emphasised.
The benefits of this project for students and schools During this project, the students will get to know foreign students and the folklore about participating countries. The language of work is English, so they can improve their skills in both speaking and writing. They will also get to know both Finnish and Baltic heritage, which helps us to understand the lives of our ancestors. This project will promote the development of quality, creativity and innovation in education and strengthen and develop cooperation between schools and working life. Therefore, the goals of the project resonate with the pedagogical approach and values of both schools. The results of the visit At the end of the preparatory visit, we were able to narrow down the theme and subject of our project for the upcoming visit. We decided on the works that would be suitable for closer analysis.
From Finnish culture, we chose Kalevala and from Latvian culture, Lāčplēsis "The BearSlayer". Regionally, we thought about Finland, Satakunta, the story of Bishop Henrik and Lalli. The analysis of these two stories would be focused on such that Latvian students would get acquainted with the stories of the Finnish people and Finnish students with the stories of the Latvian people. In this way, we would develop both foreign language skills and knowledge of the culture of another country. As themes delimiting the stories, we would focus on gender equality and how people of different genders are presented in folk tales. We also considered the zeroes and heroes of the stories. Who are the heroes and who are the losers of the story, and why? We also wanted to include the creative and natural aspects, and in the project, we will get to know music and poems, in addition, the symbolism of animals.
Towards the end of the project, modern versions of the works of both cultures will be made using a digital magazine and art. The students will be able to consider for themselves, for example, how the stories would change in the modern era. The project plans include, for example, creating a comic strip, recreating images from folk tales, acting, and other forms of self-expression through language, art, and music. The purpose of the project is to preserve natural heritage. We want the dialogue between the present and the past to be maintained. With the help of the project, young people will strengthen their own national identity and learn more about their own and other countries' traditions and folk tales. At the same time, we will also see similarities between our countries' folktales.
Summary Harjavalta High School's international projects have been launched with a bang. We had Latvian guests this week. The purpose of the visit was to prepare for an upcoming project, in which Harjavalta High School acts as the coordinator, and the partner is Ventspils Valsts 1 School in Latvia. Gimnāzija. Ventspils Valsts 1. ģimnāzija The theme of the project is folktales, where students learn about Finnish and Latvian folktales and work on them in various topics. During the visit, we had the opportunity to learn about folktales and Finnish culture through museums and the library. Thanks to Jenni Kallionsivu for introducing Harjavalta Library. We also visited the wonderful museums, Prehistory Guided Tour Centre, Naurava Lohikäärme and Satakunta Museum.
The absolute strength of our high school is the active international work, which the international team organises in our high school. We need to offer students experiences of culture and travelling. #NordplusJunior #Nordplus
Thank you for the preparatory visit. We look forward to the future and possible joint mobility.